Tax Dragons
Matt Seinberg

Through and through, I am a liberal Democrat, socially and politically. Thus, what the Republicans (GOP) are doing to the tax code scares the living hell out of me. I was hoping the Senate would drop what the House included regarding deductions for state taxes, but they have not.

GOP gives middle-class families the finger.

I agree with decreasing the number of tax brackets to people, but not dropping them for corporations. The GOP wants to double the family deduction, which is no big deal. By taking away the deduction for state taxes, they are crippling many families, mine included. This Republican controlled Congress is giving the middle finger to states such as New York and California, which already have some of the highest taxes in the country.

I remember when the Bush Era tax cuts expired under President Obama, my take home pay went down by $100 a week! That's crazy! Now we're going to see our taxes go up again, all in the name of ostensible simplicity. The Republicans know exactly what they're doing and they couldn't care less about the average taxpayer.

It’s scary how much the GOP favour businesses. Paul Ryan is a vampire, sucking the lifeblood out of the average American taxpayer. I hope that one day soon, someone finds a mountain of dirt on Ryan; a mountain so high, he will be buried, as if in an avalanche. Everyone has secrets they want to stay hidden, but given enough time and resources, I'm confident someone will find something so dirty on Ryan that he will have to resign, in shame.

A businessperson as president is not a good idea.

I used to think it would be a good idea to have a businessperson as President, but after seeing how Donald Trump is running the country, I've changed my mind. Trump has left many small businesses in his wake, often not paying the money he owed them or doling it out so slowly that they went out of business. What kind of person would do that?

I'll tell you what's that called. A sociopath is a person that has no feelings about good or bad, cares nothing about others and only wants to better him or herself. Is that who Americans think should be their President? I think not.

Trump bragged on national television of how he could sexually assault women, with impunity. Billy Bush, who was with Trump when he made that comment, lost his job, with NBC, and his marriage for going along, for not questioning the comments. There was no backlash, on Trump, for his bragging. Billy Bush took the fall.

It wouldn't surprise me if Trump, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and other powerful and famous people had their own little club where they traded stories about their conquests. These are some very sick people. They should be locked up; never be allowed to see the light of day, again.

Although I wasn't a big fan of Hillary Clinton, I don't believe that she would be doing to our country what Trump is doing. I'd rather have the Democratic status quo than the idiotic changes Trump has wrought.

I still believe Joe Biden should have run and been nominated for President. Sure, he was a lifetime politician, but he is a well-respected man and effective. I also understand his reasons for not wanting to run. He had recently lost his son to brain cancer and was in deep mourning over that loss.

Could Bernie Sanders have done a better job either? I don't know. I'm not going to speculate because I don't know enough about him. The Democrats truly dropped the ball in their nominations and, therefore, lost the election.

There is backlash against the Republicans in these latest elections. Here in Nassau County, we have our first Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor in 100 years and our first County Supervisor in 8 years. The Republicans, tainted by corruption and favouritism, lost the elections.

I can only hope in the next set of elections, in November 2018, voters come to their senses and run the elected Republican officials out of office. Maybe the whole tax swindle, which the GOP is trying to ram through Congress, will wake people up out of their comas.

Citizens must come first, not cronies of the President

A President should lead the country and always put citizens first. Our current president is trying to figure out a way to help his corporate cronies and screw the citizens that put him in office. Add in the problems with Russia and North Korea and realize that this President is not fit to run this country. I hope that the Democrats and independents will summon up enough courage to impeach him.

I am now stepping off the soapbox. Thank you.